


Roses, Radishes, and Nargles

by poppetawoppet



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 5 Times, F/M, Fluff, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 16:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4753322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppetawoppet/pseuds/poppetawoppet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Neville and Luna kissed and one time it mattered</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roses, Radishes, and Nargles

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to [](http://blindmadness.livejournal.com/profile)[**blindmadness**](http://blindmadness.livejournal.com/) and [](http://idahophoenix.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://idahophoenix.livejournal.com/)**idahophoenix** for betaing

Neville doesn't belong here. He wants to go home. Just because he can do magic doesn't mean he belongs here. It doesn't make him a wizard. Hagrid could do magic (not that Neville is supposed to know this) and he isn't a wizard.

All sorts of things go wrong the first year, only emphasizing Neville's disbelief at ever getting his letter. He loses his toad at least once a week, he's broken fourteen cauldrons in Potions alone, and not even his housemates look at him directly. (And on that note, shouldn't he be in Hufflepuff? Neville is not brave or daring or any of the things a Gryffindor should be.)

But some things go right, and somehow Neville finds his courage, and in the end it's his points that ultimately win the House cup.

He's baffled and embarrassed and secretly pleased, because for the first time in his life, he's done something so completely right, and he begins to wonder if maybe he could be a wizard. Maybe there was something here for him. Herbology hadn't been so bad, and Charms was okay, and McGonagall seemed to believe he could be a decent wizard…

He approaches the second year of Hogwarts with a little bit of hope. He's eyed by more than a few girls, which is disconcerting, but he stays away: he could never talk to them anyway.

So when a first-year, blonde and wide-eyed, walks up to him on the Hogwarts Express, he's more than nervous. She regards him with a look he can't quite describe.

"Can I help you with something?" he manages to stutter.

"You're Neville Longbottom," she says, and steps into the car.

"Well, yes," he says.

She steps towards him, and kisses him on the cheek. Neville blinks. He's received a bit of attention for the House Cup thing last year, but this is new.

"You had a Wriggly-Spurt just below your eye. Good thing I remembered to wear my Glonker chapstick, or else you'd be blind by now."

And that's how he meets Luna Lovegood.

*

Of course, the third year is much like the first and second—Neville is used to being the person who messes up everything without even trying, so it's all too familiar when the whole of Gryffindor turns their backs on him for losing their House passwords to Sirius Black. (Well not Harry, or Ron, or Hermione, but they aren't always held in the highest regard, so Neville is never sure if they count or not.) So he takes to finding hidey-holes at Hogwarts (which is harder than it should be), his favorite being the not-so-secret garden near Professor Sprout's office. Yet when he goes to hide there, he is still not alone.

"Don't mind me," Luna says as she twirls down the path, a strange bouquet of roses, cork tree branches and radishes in her hand, "I'm just taking care of the Nargle infestation."

"I see," Neville says.

He doesn't mind Luna so much, because for all her whimsy, she tends to be as much of a loner as he is. Plus, she keeps other people away. Neville feels bad for thinking it, but it's the truth.

He goes back to reading his book, trying to study, even though he knows he'll do abysmally on the Potions exam. But he's curious now.

"Why the combination of those plants?"

Luna turns and looks at him. She seems surprised. Neville's almost certain no one's taken an interest in her endeavors ever before.

"Well, it's the combination. The roses are too pretty for the Nargles to look at, and the cork absorbs their attention, and really, who likes radishes?"

"I see."

"You lost all the passwords to your House."

Luna, if nothing else, does stumble across the truth from time to time. And is never afraid to say it, either.

"Yes," Neville mumbles, already feeling the familiar blush rising.

"Well at least they weren't stolen. I'd be much happier if I just lost my shoes."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, they'll come back. They always do. So will your friends."

She smiles at him. Neville smiles back. He puts down his books, and hugs Luna, kissing the top of her forehead.

"Thanks, Luna. You're brilliant."

She blinks at him, and picks up her bouquet. "Be careful, you don't want the Nargles to get in your hair."

"I won't," he says, and he returns to his studies.

*

Everyone finds out about his parents fifth year. It's not that Neville has ever wanted to hide them, like his gran says, it's just that…

It's sort of hard to walk up to people and say 'Hi, I'm Neville, and my parents are functionally three years old thanks to being cursed by Death Eaters, and the only presents I've ever received for holidays are gum wrappers and lollipop sticks.' They aren't dead, so it's not like people can give him condolences, but they aren't alive, either, so they can't show up to surprise him and take him to Hogsmeade. He's had his whole life to figure out how to tell people, yet he can never bring himself to do it. He's never been popular, so sleepovers have never been a problem.

Anyway, if he invited people to his house, they'd see the box where he keeps the gum wrappers and sticks, and it's sort of personal.

He applies himself to Dumbledore's Army, instead. It's the one place in the whole school where no one asks him stupid questions. He may get a few looks, but no one asks. Well. Almost no one.

"Have you ever tried a Dindlycrunk," Luna says when they are paired for Stunning Spells.

"A Dindlycrunk?"

Neville hears a snicker, but he focuses on Luna, instead.

"Helps with the memory. Or so I've heard. I thought that maybe…"

"Is that so?"

"You don't believe me. It's okay, no one does. I believe."

She turns and goes to work with someone else for awhile, before he can say anything. He catches her as everyone is leaving.

"Hey, Luna, can I talk to you?"

"Sure," she says.

"How does the Dindlycrunk work, exactly?"

She looks at him, and says nothing.

"Okay, maybe I don't believe. But you do, and I have this annoying habit of listening to my friends."

She smiles (and maybe his heart beats a little faster, because she is his friend, but he sort of likes her too, and girls are confusing and he has enough things to deal with besides this sort of complication. Except the more he thinks about it, the more he likes the idea of it, and wonders maybe if he hadn't been thinking about all along. Hence why he should stop thinking about it, before he gets a headache.)

"Well, it only works if ingested. Plus, I thought about it, and it's never been tested on people with curses, so maybe it won't work. But if you ever want to try, I'm sure my dad could work up the potion for you."

She stands on her tiptoes and brushes her lips with his. Neville swallows.

"Wriggly-Spurt?"

Luna giggles and shakes her head. "No. Mistletoe."

Neville watches her walk away, and adds how he feels about Luna Lovegood to the things he cannot even begin to comprehend.

*  
Neville blinks at the white coffin. It's not real, he tells himself. Dumbledore can't be dead. But as he shuffles to his seat, leaning on Luna, it begins to settle in.

He doesn't really listen to the eulogy. He prefers to sit with his own brief memories of Dumbledore.

"You know, if you look at the sun just right," Luna says, "you can really see the Wrackspurts gathering."

Neville snorts, causing an older wizard to turn around and frown in disapproval. He ignores the look, pulling Luna in for a tight hug, and kissing the top of her head.

"No idea what I ever did before I met you."

She looks up at him, "Too bad all the Time-Turners were destroyed. We could go look, if you really wanted to."

"That's all right. I'm okay right here."

When it's over, they shuffle back to the castle. Neville doesn't want to leave Hogwarts. He shakes his head and wonders when exactly it became home. When he extracts promises from everyone to write, he realizes that it isn't just that his friends are here.

His family is here.

*

Chaos.

Everything is falling apart, and Neville hasn't seen anyone he knows in hours. He still has the sword of Gryffindor in one hand, his wand in the other. He's covered in snake blood, and he's probably going to die by morning.

And he's grinning like a madman.

"Neville, what do we do?"

He doesn't know who asks it, but it doesn't matter. He's somehow _leading_ these people, and it makes sense.

"We fight," he says, and they do.

Later, he finds himself in the cheering crowd, hugging and weeping and kissing. He's already received ten proposals, and at least five offers that have made him blush to his toes.

Then another pair of arms is around him, and someone kisses him fiercely.

"Oh. Hi, Luna."

_Really, Neville?_ he thinks _Hi Luna? This is the first time you've spoken to her since she disappeared at Christmas, and that's what you say?_

"Everyone seems to be doing it. I've been proposed to four times already."

_Tell her, you stupid git. I mean, you almost died, everyone almost died, and if she laughs at you maybe you could pass it off as heat of the moment, right?_

"Any good offers?"

Luna tilts her head to one side, and Neville almost says something, but then she says,

"I don't think I want to be married. After all, there are so many things to see in the world, right?"

"Yeah," Neville says. "Definitely. Hey, look there's Harry," he changes the subject quickly.

*

_"I heard that if you get docked too many points, he'll cut you with the sword and water his plants with your blood."_

_"Well I heard that he disappears on weekends with the sword and fights ogres."_

_"I heard that he's received hundreds of proposals, but is already married to a Muggle."_

_"I heard that he's waiting for his one true love."_

_"I heard that his love was killed in the war with Voldemort and he vowed to never marry."_

Neville shakes his head and returns to his plants. _First-years._ Sure, he has the sword of Gryffindor hanging in his office. Most of the time. He thought of asking Hermione about it the first time it disappeared and came back, but some mysteries didn't need solving.

Neville Longbottom, Herbology Professor, Head of Gryffindor House. Sometimes he sits in his office and looks at the sword, a mystified grin on his face. The first year he was here, he had to practically kick students out of the office. They all want war stories, the first-years. Sometimes he'll share a tidbit with advanced Herbology students, or to help struggling students, but for the most part, he keeps them to himself. None of them ever believe in stumbling, nervous Neville.

He has a reputation for being strict but fair. And of appearing in the right place at the right time. Harry gave him the Marauder's Map as a gift when he got the job, and Neville uses it quite wisely.

As to the other rumors: he never really found a lot of time for dating. He found himself absorbed in his work, teaching, or working on various experiments, hybrid plants, or ingredients for the students to use.

He still talks with his friends from school. Harry, Ron and Hermione had all gotten married, and Luna was off wandering the world. The last time he had seen her was about a year ago, but if he was right—

The bat dropped off the letter just in time. (It's a testament to the number of strange flying creatures that have passed from Luna that Neville barely even notices that it is a bat.)

_~ Found Wrackspurts too inconvenient in Egypt. Good to hear about your latest project. Luna~_

He blinks. It's probably the shortest letter she's ever sent. Not that her letters are long. Luna has never been much for words.

"So what's this about a new hybrid?"

Neville looks up and grins. (His heart still beats a little faster. The letters, although short, have been frequent, and full of implications he dares never think about. The visits have been less frequent, and all friendly, but there's a part of him that hopes, even though he knows nothing will happen.)

He stands and hugs her (perhaps a second too long, but who could blame him)?

"Why don't you come see?"

The not-so-secret garden has subtly changed, although students hardly ever come here to hide. Not that Neville minds, because it's his hidey-hole.

"So I basically worked on improving the color," he says, leading Luna to the back of the garden, "I worked on a spell that incorporated the rose's prettiest aspects, but gave the roots a bit of the sponginess of cork, and if you lean in, it sort of smells like radishes. I ended up with this. Lunaris rosa."

The rose is a pale yellow, with blue streaks. The students call it the Rose Wall, as the plant has aggressively taken over the entire back portion of the gardens.

"You named a rose after me."

"Well, you gave me the idea. It seems fairly resistant to pests. Especially Nargles."

She turns and looks at him for a long time. "I like seeing the world. I like that among the Muggles, I'm just eccentric. I like being able to talk about things to no one, because no one can laugh at me."

Neville doesn't say anything. He knows this already. It's why he's never asked for anything but her friendship.

"You don't believe in Nargles."

"No," Neville says. "But you do."

She doesn't say anything for awhile, just watching him with her wide eyes.

"You'd never ask me to stay, would you?"

Neville shakes his head, unable to say anything. Even after all these years, he still couldn't.

"You know, it would be nice to have somewhere to call home, though," she says, looking up at him.

Neville doesn't know what to say. So he kisses her instead, hoping she means what he thinks she does. When she kisses him back, it's all the answer he could have wanted.

"Oh my gosh I wonder if that's the professor's secret wife?"

Neville leans his forehead against Luna's and mutters something about first-years.

"Secret wife?" Luna asks.

"Apparently I'm ashamed of my Muggle wife. That's one of the rumors."

"Tell me more," she says, "I'd love to hear about them."

So he takes her hand, tells her everything, and walks her home.

(Perhaps he babbles too much, and maybe he trips up the stairs he's been climbing for years, but Luna just listens, as she always does, and holds out her hand to help him up when he falls. So he gladly helps her search for Nargles in the library, and almost never complains when she's gone hunting. Mostly.)


End file.
